1. Field of the Invention
With reference to the classification of art as established in and by the U.S. Patent Office this invention is believed to be found in the General Class entitled, "Conveyor System Having a Gravity Conveyor Section" (Class 198) and in the subclass entitled, "With damper for drive" (subclass 767) and also in the subclass entitled, "By unbalanced weights" (subclass 770). Also to be noted is the General Class entitled, "Machine Elements and Mechanisms" (Class 74) and in the subclass entitled, "Unbalanced Weights" (subclass 61).
2. Description of the Prior Art
A careful pre-Ex search in the Patent Office found among many vibrator apparatus the following: U.S. Pat. No. 1,497,603 to Stebbins as issued 10 June 1924; U.S. Pat. No. 1,858,328 to Heymann et al as issued 17 May 1932; U.S. Pat. No. 2,358,876 as issued to Overstrom on 26 September 1944; U.S. Pat. No. 2,797,796 to Carrier, Jr. et al as issued 2 July 1957; U.S. Pat. No. 2,821,292 to Spurlin as issued 28 Jan. 1958; U.S. Pat. No. 2,865,210 to Fisher as issued 23 Dec. 1958; U.S. Pat. No. 2,960,213 to Holt as issued 15 Nov. 1960; U.S. Pat. No. 3,089,582 to Musschoot et al as issued on 14 May 1963; U.S. Pat. No. 3,212,345 to Rechenberg et al as issued 19 Oct. 1965; U.S. Pat. No. 3,212,629 to Maeder et al as issued on 19 Oct. 1965; U.S. Pat. No. 3,468,418 to Renner as issued 23 Sept. 1969; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,772,923 to Burt as issued 20 Nov. 1973.
Most of these references are directed to use in conveyors and the advancing of material therealong. The use of springs and resilient isomodes is shown and is well known. The present invention provides a resilient disk that is used in conjunction with the motive force to carry the vibration force to a housing that is secured to the structure to be vibrated in one direction.
Directional force vibration apparatus is conventionally produced by SYNTRON (TM Syntron Vibrator Co.) type apparatus which is electromagnetic vibrators. This apparatus consists of a coil and magnet and is used particularly on feeders. Such apparatus is conventionally single phase, draws a large amount of electric current and the vibrations fluctuates with voltage drops. In Europe, where three phase electric current is almost exclusively used in industry, a competing electrical device has been developed and used for at least thirty years. One type of apparatus is an electric motor that employs a pendulum mount and this mounting absorbs lateral vibration and will transmit unidirectional forces. This apparatus is large and occupies a great deal of space. This single motor when mounted on a structure with eccentric weight applied thereto is used for surface treatment machines, filters, vibrating tables, distributing machines, certain handling equipment etc., and this apparatus produces forces free to move in any direction.
Two identical motors of the same power and of the same speed mounted in parallel on a structure free to move will automatically become synchronous if they are contrarotating. Like eccentric weights are used so that both motors produce unidirectional forces and this principle is found in material handling such as conveyors, loaders, distributors, screens and the like. A rubber shock mount is also used with a pedestal mounting and a motor with eccentric weights that are moved or adjusted to produce a controlled pendlum force. The brief discussion of the prior art will be made with appropriate discussion of the diagrammatic representation.
There is shown a noiseless air-actuated turbine-type vibrator in U.S. Pat. No. 3,870,282 as issued Mar. 11, 1975 to Wadensten. This vibrator is adapted to produce radial forces in every direction. The ball-type vibrator also produces like vibration forces. The multidirectional force is advantageous for moving materials out of bins and hoppers and in consolidating concrete, but is not desirable in feeding material to and through a trough or tray. The multidirectional vibration apparatus creates nodes and poles in fluent material in the trough or table. This results in said material forming a sinusoidal wave or waves which do not move. A directed force is needed for pushing the material in small progressive amounts.
The embodiments to be hereinafter described in detail provide an inexpensive unidirectional force of small size and of inexpensive construction.